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Welsh Rarebit

A cheese-based sauce served over toast, flavored with mustard, salt, cayenne pepper, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Welsh Rarebit

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cheese sauce

  1. Combine the cheese and cream or milk in a double boiler.

  2. Mix the mustard, salt, and cayenne pepper, then add to the cheese mixture and beat well.

  3. Once the cheese is melted, stir in the dry ingredients and the egg.

  4. Add the butter and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens.

Serve

  1. Pour the cheese mixture over the toast.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Mustard + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cheese + mustardtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,805 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Cheese + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cheese
Melts into the sauce and provides the main flavour and rich body.
Egg
Helps thicken the sauce as it cooks and adds richness.
Cream or milk
Makes the cheese melt smoothly and gives the sauce a creamy, fluid texture.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth, glossy texture and rich flavour.
Mustard
Adds sharp, tangy flavour that balances the richness of the cheese.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce gently while stirring constantly. Cheese proteins and egg can seize, turn grainy or curdle if overheated or left unstirred. Gentle, constant stirring over a double boiler keeps the sauce smooth as it thickens.

Swap the mustard

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream, pepper, egg, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, pepper, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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